Get to Know the Parks

From diverse deserts to breathtaking mountains to expansive forests, national parks across the United States, Canada, and around the world are waiting to be explored. With expert advice from our authors, you’ll be ready to experience their natural beauty in no time.

This free PDF version of our National Parks Sampler combines sections of our top National Parks handbooks. It has been newly updated in 2015 and includes itineraries, trip ideas, and travel planning tips for:

Get Inspired With Our Most Recent National Parks Articles

From the serenity of a walk through giant, gentle sequoias to the stunning view atop mountains and gorges to the incredible natural majesty of waterfalls and spindle-thin rock arches, the world’s national parks are yours to explore. Here are our four most recent articles to get you started, or dig deeper and browse the latest Moon travel articles for all articles on both domestic and international National Parks.

The Parque Nacional Lagunas de Chacahua spreads for about 20 miles of open-ocean beach shoreline and islet-studded jungly lagoons. With so much ground to explore, it usually takes a full day and must be done by boat. Here are available excursions, highlights, and accommodations.

The 1.6-mile round-trip trek across this small section of the Ka’u Desert outside Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park is fascinating, and the history of the footprints makes the experience more evocative. Because of deterioration, the footprints are faint and difficult to make out, but worth the trip to see for yourself.

The 11-mile road that circles the Kilauea Caldera and passes by nearly all the main sights in the park is Crater Rim Drive. Since you can’t circle the caldera because of a long-term road closure, we’ve divided the sights into two sections: those to the right of the visitors center and those to the left of the visitors center.

While watching the sunrise, hiking the crater floor, or looking up at the stars as they come out are great introductions to the crater, spending a night in the backcountry is the absolute best way to commune with nature on this mountain. Learn how to make it happen.